By Donna Cornelius
Journal features editor
Vicki and Marvin Perry have owned their Redmont Park house for only seven years. But Vicki’s connection to the historic Birmingham neighborhood goes back much further—in fact, to Redmont’s beginnings.
“My grandfather, Hill Ferguson, developed Redmont with Robert Jemison,” Vicki said.
As a child, Vicki was a frequent visitor to her Ferguson grandparents’ home on Altamont Road, she said, and to Forest Park, where her other grandparents lived on Essex Road.
Although she grew up in Decatur, “I spent a lot of time in Birmingham and in Redmont,” Vicki said.
Ferguson shared more than a business partnership with Jemison. The two Redmont developers were neighbors and also married sisters.
Vicki can read about her grandfather and his contributions to Redmont in her copy of “Worthy of Remembrance: A History of Redmont,” a book by Cathy Adams.
Adams, a well-known writer and gifted gardener who lives near the Perrys in Redmont, writes in the book that Ferguson and his wife, Louise, lived for more than 50 years at the house they built on Altamont Road.
Ferguson “worked tirelessly for the good of Birmingham and for the University of Alabama, which named him the school’s first Distinguished Alumnus,” Adams writes. UA’s Ferguson Center is named for Vicki’s grandfather as well.
Although the Perrys haven’t lived in Redmont for as long as Vicki’s grandparents did, they feel right at home at 1621 Lanark Place, Vicki said. They moved to Redmont from a Cape Cod-style house in Mountain Brook in 2006.
“I love old houses,” Vicki said.
Their Redmont home, near Mountain Brook’s English village, fits that bill. Built in 1925, its first owners were Andrew and Helen Townes. Townes was president of the Remington Typewriter Co., Vicki said.
The next owner of the house was Harper Vaughn, followed by James H. Hand Jr. and Irvin C. Kinney.
“The Kinneys lived here for quite a while—from 1947 to at least 1965,” Vicki said. “People still say, ‘Oh, you’re in the Kinneys’ house.’”
A more recent homeowner updated the kitchen and added an expansive family room, Vicki said.
The Perrys made some improvements, too. They built a garage, and Vicki replaced the massive limestone fireplace in the living room with a wood-paneled one more in keeping with the room’s proportions.
She’s also filled the rooms with family treasures and her own finds. A Jacobean chest in the living room is an example of both.
“The chest was in my grandmother’s home on Essex Road,” Vicki said. “Nobody else in the family showed an interest in it. I’d just gotten married, and I wanted it.”
Her husband’s mother, she said, “loved old boxes.” The Perrys inherited the collection, which includes decorative tea caddies. One of these is displayed in the living room near an 1868 book about married life.
Vicki said she treasures the book but added with a smile that she isn’t sure how much of the advice it contains would be popular today.
In her study, just off the living room, a table holds a Byzantine belt buckle she found in Montenegro and a monogrammed silver clutch that Vicki’s grandfather gave to her grandmother. The clutch is a reminder not only of Vicki’s grandmother but of Birmingham’s past.
“It has a place inside for streetcar tokens,” Vicki said.
She found many of the items she loves at Robert Hill Antiques, including a wooden panel showing St. Peter holding the Biblical keys to the kingdom.
The shop also helped solve a problem in the family room, she said. The room was constructed with a slanted wall behind the limestone fireplace, making it impossible to hang a picture there. The solution was to mount cabinet doors above the fireplace to create visual interest.
“Jane Hodges, who’s an interior designer, found the doors at Robert Hill Antiques,” she said. “They’re from an Italian church.”
In front of the wooden doors, which resemble organ pipes, is an assortment of starched Nativity figures made by two of Vicki’s aunts and her cousin.
“They made them years ago from starched sheets and old lace and spray-painted them gold,” Vicki said. “One of them is decorated with my aunt Jane’s Red Cross pin.”
Vicki surrounds the figures with magnolia leaves during the holidays.
Not all of the eye-catching decorative elements in the Perrys’ home are traditional. By the front door is a primitive guardian statue. Vicki thinks figures like these were used by ancient African tribes for protection, prosperity and fertility.
A late 19th-century heavy metal piece shaped like a doughnut has a fascinating story.
“It’s actually African currency,” Vicki said. “It would be worn like an anklet.”
Visitors to the Perrys’ home will see a display of family photos in one hall. Among the pictures is one of Vicki and her cousin unveiling a portrait of their grandfather, Hill Ferguson, at the University of Alabama in May 1956.
Hanging nearby is a framed Christmas card created by Vicki’s father in 1924.
“He’s supposed to have written the poem, but I suspect his parents helped him,” she said, laughing.
Vicki’s father saved and framed the hospital bills from his daughter’s birth in Decatur. The charges were modest by today’s standards.
“At $69.90, I guess I was a bargain,” Vicki said with a smile.
In the master bedroom, soft silvery-blue silk bedding lends a touch of elegance. Above the bed’s fabric-covered headboard are arched architectural fragments with mirror insets, also found at Robert Hill Antiques. A French cabinet keeps the TV out of sight when it’s not in use.
Vicki chose to use restful neutral colors throughout her house.
“You don’t get tired of them,” she said.
Vicki praised designer Jane Hodges for her contributions to the house’s interiors.
“Jane just ‘got me,’” she said.
Floral designer Carole Sullivan will help decorate the house for the holidays, Vicki said.
“We’ll have one tree in the family room,” she said. “And we’ll have one on the patio in the backyard. We’ll wrap it in burlap and decorate it with birdseed ornaments.”
Any visiting birds are likely to draw the attention of another family member—Lola, an appealing mini-Goldendoodle.
The classic design of the house stands the test of time, too. It’s described as “Chateauesque”—one of the neighborhood’s distinctive architectural styles listed on an historical marker at Redmont’s Key Circle.
